Cougars collapse in stretch at LSU
News Tribune news services
At least Tony Bennett got to see his family. If the Washington State basketball coach doesn’t see Trent Johnson any time soon, it will probably be just fine with him.
Johnson’s Stanford team defeated Washington State three times last season in Pacific-10 Conference play. His new team, LSU, took down the Cougars on Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge, La.
The Cougars (8-4) led by seven points midway through the second half before fizzling down the stretch and allowing the Tigers to get away with a 64-52 victory at the Maravich Center.
Taylor Rochestie led Washington State with 14 points. Klay Thompson added 12, and Caleb Forrest had 10.
Carelessness with the ball was a problem for the Cougars, who damaged their chances with 18 turnovers. LSU racked up 13 steals, which is 13 more than the Cougars collected.
“If we’re going to have any chance to be competitive and be successful, we’ll be in a lot of close games,” said Bennett, whose wife, Laurel, hails from Baton Rouge and left Pullman with their kids early in the week to visit her family. “Until we learn how to take care of the ball, we’ll never win those games at the end.”
Rochestie, the senior point guard, was 6-of-16 from the field with two assists and three turnovers. He led all players with his season-high nine rebounds.
“We felt we had that game in our grasp, so that’s why it hurts so much,” Rochestie told The Spokesman-Review after the game. “At the end, I feel like we kind of just gave them the ball. Literally, we just gave it to them with turnovers, letting down our guard and not showing toughness at the end of the game.”
LSU’s Johnson, a 1974 graduate of Seattle’s Franklin High School, is now 5-1 in head-to-head matchups with Bennett’s Cougs.
“Our team had to show great courage and play well at times and we did,” Johnson said. “I’m happy for this team. The players work so hard. I’m happy when they’re happy. This basketball team is getting better.”
Thompson, the Cougars’ prize freshman from Southern California, stretched WSU’s lead to 47-40 by making two free throws with 9 minutes, 13 seconds left.
That was pretty much it for the Cougs, who open Pac-10 play next Saturday night against the rival Washington Huskies in Pullman.
LSU closed the game with a 24-5 run. Marcus Thornton had eight of his 18 points during the decisive stretch. Garrett Temple added six of his 13 points, and Bo Spencer had five of his game-best 19.
On the other hand, center Aron Baynes was the only Cougar to score in the final 9 minutes.
The Tigers (10-1) led by two points heading into the final 5 minutes. Baynes, who finished with nine points and five rebounds, twice made field goals to pull Washington State within a point – the last time at 53-52 with 3:14 left to play.
The Cougars didn’t score again.
“We certainly collapsed,” Bennett said. “That one hurts a lot. … “We’ve got the Pac-10 starting and we came down here to learn something. I don’t like what we learned, unfortunately.”
Thornton knocked down a 3-pointer, and Spencer converted a three-point play following a steal as the Tigers pulled away. Spencer and Thornton sank a pair of foul shots in the final seconds.
“The game was a hard, uphill battle,” Thornton said. “Washington State was a very intense team and we just tried to match their intensity. Coach Johnson told us that this would be one of the best teams we played. We tried to get prepared to get this win.”
The Cougars made 21 of their 48 field-goal attempts, or 44 percent. LSU struggled from the field, also converting 21 field goals but on 54 attempts (39 percent). The Cougars out-rebounded the Tigers, 33-28.
Spencer kept the Tigers in the game during the first half when he scored 12 points, and Thornton made all four 3-pointers in the second half.
After falling behind by six points early in the second half, the Cougars answered with a 14-2 run. Washington State made six consecutive baskets – two by Thompson – to go ahead 41-35.
LSU soon launched its comeback, and the Cougars had no answer.
